A decent part of the traffic problem at LAX is the banked nature of flights into the 4+ terminals on the south side of the central airport complex (AA in T4, DL in T5/T6, UA in T7/T8) and then the continuing remodel/renovations going on in T1 (NW) and T2 (prep for DL move). Anyone trying to get especially into T4 or T5 if traffic backs up along T1/T2/T3/TBIT during the crunch times, you'll get very frustrated very fast.

Another part of the problem is the cross lane traffic (outer left to inner right) on all sides of the central complex on the upper deck coupled with the turn lanes that funnel traffic over to T7 (East Way), T5 (West Way). One of the things that's driving me nuts (literally) is the length of the lights on the south side of the upper deck in order to make the turn onto World Way in front of T5 and T7. At the busy times, you have folks trying to move right in order not to go over to the south side central terminals (T5 and T7), others trying to get into those lanes to go to the south terminals and then the traffic on both East Way and West Way backing up.



Another issue is, once you do make the turn of either West Way or East Way, is the problem of two lanes that are diving for the departure curb. Couple that with the stopped/parked vehicles and others that are trying to leave, and you get a mess again.

One last comment on the upper deck is the ongoing renovation work on T7/T8 - where you could more effectively drop people off either immediately after the West Way turn or much further down the T7 drop off area (around the T7 Parking Bridge) has turned very nasty and clogged since there aren't as many ways to get into T7.

Oh, and, because it sucks to do pickups on the arrival (lower) level, more and more vehicles are using the departure (upper) level to do pickups. This is really jammed up by Uber, Lyft, etc.

The biggest problem on the lower level is the innie/outie challenge of getting to the curbside lane by a) having to get past all of the buses and trams picks up on the outer islands, b) crossing into the two lanes of curb traffic where folks both enter and exit at the gaps between upper deck column supports, c) (as mentioned by others) the cars "stopped/idling/parked" problems on the curb pickup lane that limit flow.

Another problem on the lower level are the stop lights and intended/unintended foot traffic getting to and from the terminals. I too have run across at red lights when I'm late for a flight but this is not only dangerous (for pedestrians) but also slows down the through traffic as it picks up speed entering on the T1-T3 side and leaving on the T4-T8 side.

Some of the problems of the disappearing lanes for turns going south over to the T5-T7 side also appear but, unless the cross roadways are backed up, don't have the same magnitude of impact as on the upper deck.

With so much traffic now coming off of the I105 West offramp onto Northbound Sepulveda, the transition to get onto and into the World Way and Century Boulevard again jams up at those peak times. Add to this with all of the buses and trams merging now primarily from Century, we get another mess. There's still the traffic that exits off of the I405 onto Century (sooner or later) as well as side flow traffic coming in via the Vicksburg Ave overramp but the waits for those seem to pale in comparison.